You could hear the excitement in his voice as the vocalist and guitarist for Alert the Medic talked about their single“Echo and Fade” being featured as part of the NHL Awards in Las Vegas Tuesday night.

“We’re all huge sports fans, so it’s pretty surreal, it’s unbelievable really,” he said. “I played competitive hockey my whole life and never made it to the NHL, but now I can sort of say that we’ve made it there, just as musicians. We really can’t wait to see it tomorrow.”

While they were on tour in Ontario a week and a half ago they received the call about the NHL wanting to feature their song. MacDonald, originally from Stellarton, said they thought someone was pulling a prank on them.

“A few weeks ago NHL.com asked if they could use ‘Echo and Fade’ in a highlight pack,” he said. “They loved the tune so they wanted to use it at the NHL Awards. Where this sits on the totem pole of things that have happened to us – it’s pretty high.”

It’s accomplishments like this that tell the band they’re doing the right things. MacDonald said in the music industry there isn’t too much reassurance that the band is on the right track, but having songs featured on TV shows or something like the NHL Awards does some reassuring.

Tuesday night he isn’t sure if the band will be watching as a group, but knows they’ll all be watching. Band members Matt Campbell (Stellarton) and Dale Wilson (Sunny Brae) are from Pictou County, while guitarist Troy Arseneault is from Campbellton, N.B.

“I don’t know if we’ll be watching it together because an email just came through about a band practice tomorrow at five,” said MacDonald. “It’s funny that even though this is going on tomorrow night that the email came through about practice. We just got back from touring, but we know we need to practice if we’re going to keep getting better. That doesn’t stop for any particular reason.

“After practice I know whether we’re watching together or separately that we’ll all be watching with bells on.”